I'm John Batchew with my colleague Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College,

Argentina. A very good news story, Javier Malay, the man who campaigned with a chainsaw,

is now addressing the economy, and he's had great success in lowering the inflation rate, which is still crushing.

However, I learned from an op-ed piece in the Financial Times that Javier Millet is also doing very small things that add up to a better government.

And the one that compelled me most was apparently the Kurchneristis, the previous regime

and influenced by the vice president who used to be the president, set up clubs administering

welfare to the poor. The clubs would receive the food and the money to buy the food and then pass it on to the poor,

paying for themselves. Havier Millet has eliminated the clubs, meaning it's the government right

to the people who need financial, it's chiefly food assistance, the soup kitchen. It's a very

small thing, but across the scale, it saves money

and makes the government look less corrupt. Professor, you see the other possibilities in a nation

that is cynical enough to believe that all officials deserve a cutback, a kickback, that small thing about eliminating the clubs so that you get your food

directly from a food bank, that would hearten a great number of people, not just those who

received the food. Do you agree?

I do, John. And clearly the bigger picture of what's happened with Javier Malaya here is

that he has been unwinding what was

fundamentally a self-destructive, clientalistic political and economic system that the

perinists had run for generations. And so, of course, the funneling of money for the poor,

you know, through, again, through clubs, through soup kitchens.

That was one example. There were also price controls on different products. So as inflation got

worse, they said, okay, well, you can't, you know, you can only charge this for this and in that

for that. There were a series of price controls also on public utilities. There were a series of

...